THE mired Cotswold Water Park Society is to be mothballed in a bid to boost public confidence.

CWPS has been in the firing line since April following the arrest of chief executive Dennis Grant and finance director Nick Hanson.

Now it is set to be completely overhauled over the next six months.

Numerous calls have been made by the parishes of South Cerney, Somerford Keynes and Ashton Keynes for the CWPS board to resign amid criticism of a lack of openness and transparency.

Now Matthew Millett, acting joint chief executive officer of the CWPS, announced this week the organisation will be fundamentally re-structured with existing board members stepping down and a new governing body appointed.

"The society as we know it will effectively disappear," said Mr Millett.

"The profile of the CWPS will drop to nil."

The news was due to be announced at a public meeting last night (Wed).

Under the new plans, the CWPS will become dormant and be replaced by the Cotswold Water Park Trust, a charity set up in 2005. The CWPS will become a land holding subsidiary of CWPT.

The Cotswold Water Park Estates and Rangers will be disbanded and a brand new trading subsidiary set up.

The plans were unveiled to South Cerney parish councillors at a meeting last week and received an enthusiastic response with chairman Mike Stuart saying it was "a great step forward in the right direction."

Mr Millett said the charity would be subject to more rigorous regulation than previously.

"We need to turn this organisation around and put it on the right track," he said. "We should not have allowed it to get into the state it is in. We need clarity and we need to improve the way it is governed."

The CWPT already has four trustees and a chairman in place. Three of the trustees are CWPS board members and will step down. The chairman will also resign, once a replacement has been found.

Only then will a new board be appointed, using criteria to include strategic thinking, and financial literacy.

Membership of the CWPT will be available to anyone for a small annual fee and members will need to ratify the board at annual general meetings.

"There is a clear need to improve, and be seen to improve, the governance of the entire organisation," said Mr Millett.

"The board will be answerable to members and members have the power to remove the chair and the trustees.

"Our image has suffered and we need new impetus, a fresh start and definitive break from the past."

If the new plans are approved by the existing CWPS and CWPT board, the shake-up will be complete by March 2011.